I Excel

As the students are completing their math diagnostics this week, remind them to look at the software's name and tell themselves just that. This is their opportunity to show us what they excel in and what areas we can help them improve in.  All students should be encouraged to do their best.  

Mary will be out for a few days and will be back as soon as she is ok.  Pray for her speedy recovery.  Remind students to cover their mouths when they cough and wash their hands often.  

The faculty meeting on Tuesday has been canceled so that everyone who wishes to attend the CPR Training may attend.  Techie Kids Club is visiting certain classes on Thursday (Mary gave you a schedule).  The scouts also wanted to visit classes this week, but I asked them to come at lunchtime instead.  I'm waiting to hear back.  Next week, you will have a visit from the Angels Outreach committee to speak to students about becoming part of the Kindness Krew and our first school-wide fundraiser.  I will send a schedule later in the week. 

Lastly, Friday is a school-wide jean day. Students and faculty may wear jeans with our school-themed t-shirt (assuming they arrive in time). Typically, on the first jean day, the theme shirt is mandatory if they wear jeans. After this one, any spirit shirt or PE shirt is fine. I will keep you posted on the t-shirts.  

Have a wonderful week!

This Is When Things Get Real

You made it through the first week, and now, welcome to week 2.  By now, you should have established rules and routines in the classroom, gotten to know your students, and are familiar with student accommodations.  By this week, everyone should be diving into the curriculum if you have not done so already.  This is also a busy week and includes important due dates.  Here are the highlights:

Tuesday – Picture Day.  An estimated schedule will be sent out from Karen. Please wait for someone to come get your class.

Wednesday – First Wednesday Mass.  Please remember that the class hosting the Mass should attend the start of Adoration and stay for 5-10 min.  When done, exit quietly through the doors of the chapel and walk around the church.  If K-2 would like to attend at any time, they are welcome. 

Thursday – Back-to-School night.  I will reply to everyone who has sent me their materials by tomorrow morning.

Friday – Faith Development Plan is due from everyone, and the Professional Growth Plan is due from all teachers.  There is also an assembly for students in grades 2-8.  Check the calendar for your time.  

The Faculty Meeting on Tuesday will only be for those on the Data Team.  Mary will send the details.

Finally, here is what I learned at my Administrator's Meeting on Friday: 

• They are discontinuing the John Hopkins School Culture Survey.  Yay!!!   I'm not sure what they will replace it with, but that was good news.  Evidently I was not the only one to find the data useless.
• The superintendent's plan for Mass at Tropicana Field is that ALL Catholic school students in grades 3-12, faculty, and staff will attend Mass at 10 am on the Wednesday of Catholic Schools Week.  Parents would not be invited as there would not be enough room.  If you have any questions about this, please see me.   
• I spoke with Dr. Majeski about this food in schools nonsense, and he is going to ask our lawyers about it.  

Have a wonderful week, and remember, if it takes more than two sentences to answer an email, pick up the phone.  

Ready? Set? Oh Well.... Go!

 Ready or not, here it is!  Welcome to a new school year.  From everything I saw Friday afternoon, I know we are ready.  From the smiles on the faces of the children (AND parents!), they are also ready to be back at school.  Today at Mass, I was filled with joy when I heard Fr. Dermot's homily.  He talked about Paul's letter and made the connection to our theme, Be Kind!  He talked about our theme and then asked the community to join in on our mission to be kind.  It felt like we are now part of something bigger, and I hope that together, we can all make at least our small part of the world a kinder place.  

With Monday being lost last week, we were rushed to complete pre-planning items. I have included a couple of reminders below and will cover anything else we missed at our Tuesday Faculty Meeting. 

• Church envelopes: I saw that some classrooms had the boxes out on Friday, which was fine. It reminded me that we didn't talk about these last week. Please be sure to talk to the students about why they have them. They are for them to share their time, talent, or treasure. It does not have to be money; it can be a prayer or writing about something they did to help someone.  
• Fire drills: Be sure to practice the fire drill with students.  Encore teachers should at least point to where they exit the room or take them all the way out.  We will have a fire drill sometime during the week. 

Thank you all for your commitment to Catholic education and to our community.  I am grateful for the opportunity to work with each of you. 

Have a wonderful first week of school!  

School's Out For Summer!

 These will be the words I will be singing down the hall on Friday.  While it's been a great school year in many ways, I will not be sad to see it end.  I am, however, excited about the prospect of a fabulous 2024-25 school year.  

This week the best advice I can give you is to watch every move they make and don't blink.  As we get closer to Friday, really don't blink.  

Teachers, please be sure to communicate with us this week about students who need any type of summer remediation.  We want to be sure there is an appropriate comment, and not "promoted."  

This week we will have fewer students on campus since PK and 8th graders will not be back this week.  They are invited to join us on Friday at noon for the end-of-year celebration, so you may see them that day.  Monday - Wednesday will be typical days.  Thursday is the Talent Show in the afternoon in the FLC.  Please be sure students start taking things home on Wednesday and use Thursday morning to have the students clean the desks, chairs, and lockers (better they do it than you).  Be sure all sticky stuff is off the desks, walls, and floors.  I will need some help in the music room with packing up and cleaning.  If you need anything, talk to Ken.  

I suggest you not pass out yearbooks until your room is clean.  It gives them an incentive to get it all done.  On Friday, dismissal will begin at 11:30 and it is classroom pickup.  Anyone left at 12:15 may be sent to the office.  

Have a wonderful week and please stop by the FLC on Friday after school to pick up a burger and say goodbye to families.  Thank you!

Holy Moments

 Good morning, Happy Cinco de Mayo, and congratulations to our 2nd graders who have completed the second step in their journey towards full initiation into the Catholic faith.  Our students all looked beautiful and handsome and glowed with anticipation for what they were about to receive.  Thank you Galy and Sammee for guiding them on this journey to this unforgettable moment in their lives.

This morning as I was cleaning, I picked up a book that Prince has been reading called Holy Moments by Matthew Kelly.  As I was skimming through it I discovered something called "Spiritual Multiplication" so I dug deeper and thought what a great concept to apply to kindness. 

This is what the author is saying in his book.  Some moments are holy and some are unholy.  It is our choices that can guide the moment in either direction. By collaborating with God, we can create Holy Moments.   The author says, "A Holy Moment is a single moment in which you open yourself to God.  You make yourself available to Him.  You set aside personal preference and self-interest, and for one moment you do what you prayerfully believe God is calling you to do."  Think of the Good Samaritan. He created a Holy Moment by his choice to help a stranger.  Holy Moments make us happy and there is science to prove it.  Think about what brings you more joy, watching the excitement in someone's face as they open a gift you gave them, or receiving a gift.  For me, it is always the giving that brings me joy.  Holy Moments are an act of generosity and science shows that generosity releases three hormones that bring us joy - serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin - and I'm sure we all want joy in our lives.  

The book goes on to explain Spiritual Multiplication as the sharing of the concept of Holy Moments with others but I can see how this concept can also be applied to sharing kindness.  The author tells a story about an Abbot and a Hermit and in the story, the Hermit says, "A still pond reflects the sun perfectly.  God is the sun.  You are the lake.  When your soul is still and clear you reflect the truth, beauty, and goodness of God to everyone you encounter."  Apply this to Spiritual Multiplication (also a great way to incorporate faith into math).  

• Share a Holy Moment with three people through acts of kindness and when they say thank you, ask them to do the same to three more people giving the same directions: 1 + (1 x 3 = 3) = 4
• Three new people are now sharing Holy Moments and giving the same directions to three others: 4 + (3 x 3 = 9) = 13
• And those 9 new people teach three more: 13 + (9 x 3 = 27) = 40
• And so it goes...  40 + (27 x 3 = 81) = 121

Ask the students to see how many steps it will take to reach 1 million people.  It may not be realistic, but it truly is a great challenge.  By collaborating with God we can make change.  

There was one other thought in the book that is a great concept to remind students.  In the story of the Abbot and Hermit, there was strife among the monks and the wisdom of the Hermit was to remind them that the Messiah is among them.  Not sure who it was among them, they started treating everyone with kindness.  The Hermit did not mean that the Messiah was back on earth in human form, but reminds us that God lives within each one of us.  How we treat others is how we treat Christ.  I think this is a good reminder for students that their actions not only bring joy or hurt to others but also to Jesus.  

Now that you have listened to my sermon for the day, here's the action taking place this week.  First, Happy Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week!  Thank you all for everything you do for the school and our students.  You will all have received an email from Nicki describing the events of the week.  In addition, Mary and I are canceling Monday's faculty meeting.  Please use that time to continue the work started on Friday if you are not done or whatever else you may need to do.  Keep in mind there are only three more weeks of school (Yay!) and all grades should be up to date by now so that there are no surprises for students/parents.  

Here is the rundown of the week:

• Tuesday: Student Council Inauguration and NJHS Induction in the church at 2 pm.  Grades 3-8 will attend the Inauguration (which will happen first) and grades 6-8 will stay for the Induction.
• Wednesday: May Crowning at Mass.  2nd graders will wear their communion outfits and bring clothes to change.  There will be a reception after Mass for the 2nd graders and their families hosted by the 3rd grade in rooms 2 and 3 of the FLC.
• 8th graders will take their math finals on Wed. and Thurs.
• Thursday: Festival of the Arts.  I invite everyone to attend the event which takes place right after school.  The drama club and 5th grade will be performing in the music room at approximately 3:30 pm
• Friday: Marvelous Mustang (be sure all parents have been invited) after the morning show on Facebook Live.  In the evening is the Middle School Social.

It will be a busy week and the fun will continue next week with graduation activities.  I wish you all a joy-filled week with many Holy Moments.

The Anxious Generation

 Many times we sit in meetings or professional developments and they are less than awe-inspiring.  Typically I start making a grocery list in my head, or better yet, start planning my next vacation.  Then there are times when you DON'T want them to say, "Let's finish early."  On Friday, I was ready to learn more and have more discussion time with other principals.  The topic was Technology in Schools and Chris started the discussion by showing this video about The Anxious Generation, a book written by Jonathan Haidt.  Here is the link to watch the video.  You may not agree with everything he says, but I'm sure you can relate. 

We all know that technology in the hands of young children is rewiring their brains, and we know that social media may be a cause of the rise of mental health issues, but what he asks is then why do we keep putting this technology in their hands?  When I listened, it wasn't only about technology.  He talked about children not being allowed to learn how to be independent and take charge of their lives.  He talked about parents who run to fix everything.  This is not how it will be in the real world and we are doing them a disservice.  There will be a generation that will not have the skills to navigate the waters of life.  Shout out to David who shared this same philosophy is a recent middle school meeting.  

So what do we do?  I'm not sure anyone has the answer (although the author believes he does) mostly because it is impossible to get everyone in agreement on this topic.  However, as a Diocese we will be addressing this issue and possibly coming up with school-wide policies.  I also learned of several resources we can tap into for parent presentations.  I believe that this will be a great opportunity to work together with parents to help grow our students in all aspects of their lives.   My copy of the book will be arriving from Amazon today and I'm looking forward to reading it.  

Monday and Tuesday will be i-Ready testing and we will do our cereal event on Tuesday at 2:15.  See Lisa's email for more details.  For teachers on Friday, we will start our day at 8:00 am in the media center with a discussion of our Action Plans and putting them into practice next year.  Then teachers will have time for inventory, supply lists, and planning summer work.  

And finally, just so you are prepared, 2025 is a jubilee year for the Diocese.  Chris is thinking about having a day during CSW (Jan. 29) when ALL students, teachers, parents, priests, etc. in ALL schools and parishes in the Diocese get together at Tropicana Field to celebrate Mass together.  It will be a major undertaking but it sounds pretty cool.  

Have a great week!

Who wants this one?

 This was the question that Karen asked Mary and me at 3:30 Friday afternoon when a parent was on hold.  We ran.  It was that kind of week.  I can't even begin to explain the emails I received over the weekend and the one that came through as I'm writing this blog.  There are only 5 weeks left.  I know we can do this.  The email I just received was about students leaving the playground through the gate to retrieve a ball with no supervision.  Please remain vigilant and let students know that the rules remain the same, even in the last few weeks.  I will continue to support each and every one of you in any way I can.

This is a quiet week and will get even quieter on Thursday when grades PK3-2 are leaving for the Tampa Theater to see Jack Hartman.  Friday, both Mary and I will be out.  Yesenia and Kate can help with anything you need.  And if all else fails..... run!!

Have a great week!